Hoping my home battery lasts long enough for me to post this.
It's been an SES day, which is as much as to say a rewarding day. As I said yesterday, I've been off at the chainsaw operators' course. Two other people from my unit are doing it as well, plus a couple of others from other units in the region.
The morning was theory-heavy; the afternoon focussed on how to strip down, clean and maintain chainsaws (my hands still smell of kerosene). The day finished up with some actual wood cutting. Tomorrow will involve plenty of cutting actual timber out near Shepparton airfield.
After the course let out I decided to go to Vigil Mass at St Brendans. I haven't been a fan of St Brendans in the past: the priest there is, I understand, a minor pop star, and when he celebrated Christmas Eve mass last year it felt less like a religious service and more like a concert designed to show off his vocal talents. Maybe I'm old and cranky but I don't think the faith that gave us Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli should need to resort to a knockoff of Justin Bieber. This is a shame, as the Saint it honours is St Brendan the Navigator, who I've always been fascinated by since I read Tim Severin's The Brendan Voyage at an impressionable age (in essence, a recreation of a posited trip by the Saint from Ireland to North America in the seventh century).
Anyway, be all that as it may, it was a visiting priest giving the service, which meant it was done 'straight' and reverently, which was what I most like. A big congregation I should add - the church was pretty much full. And the readings, all of which were in the theme of how the faith is open to everyone, were really striking a chord with me.
I was home by 7:30pm. Not much else to note: there's some rain about tonight but I'm not existing there to be a callout. Looking forward to sleep!
More tomorrow.
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